Jane Goodall Dies at 91—How the World’s Most Famous Chimpanzee Friend Changed Science Forever

Dame Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist whose intimate observations of chimpanzees in Tanzania shattered long-held assumptions about animal intelligence and behavior, died Wednesday in Los Angeles.Getty Images / Jens Schlueter

Los Angeles — 1 October 2025 - Dame Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist whose intimate observations of chimpanzees in Tanzania shattered long-held assumptions about animal intelligence and behavior, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 91. The cause was complications from pneumonia, according to a statement from the Jane Goodall Institute, the conservation organization she founded nearly five decades ago.

Goodall's groundbreaking work in the 1960s at Gombe Stream National Park revealed that chimpanzees fashion and use tools, hunt cooperatively, and form complex social bonds—discoveries that prompted paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, her early mentor, to quip that science must "redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as humans." Her empathetic approach, which eschewed numbered subjects in favor of names like "David Greybeard" and "Fifi," humanized primates in the public eye and inspired generations of scientists, activists, and conservationists."

Jane didn't just study chimpanzees; she lived among them and taught us to see ourselves in their eyes," said Dr. Anthony Collins, director of the Jane Goodall Institute's Gombe research program. "Her legacy is a world that values empathy over exploitation."

Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on April 3, 1934, in London's Hampstead neighborhood, Goodall grew up in a family that nurtured her curiosity. Her mother, Margaret Myfanwe Joseph—a novelist writing under the pseudonym Vanne Morris-Goodall—encouraged her daughter's fascination with animals, while her father, Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, gifted her a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee at age 18 months. That toy, which still graces her London dresser, symbolized a lifelong bond with primates.

With no formal university degree, Goodall left secretarial school at 18 and saved for years to fund a trip to Africa in 1957. In Kenya, she met Leakey, who hired her as his secretary and soon enlisted her to observe chimpanzees at Gombe, then a remote reserve in what was Tanganyika (now Tanzania). On July 14, 1960, at age 26, she arrived with her mother for moral support, beginning a study that would span over 50 years.

Goodall's unorthodox methods—sitting silently for hours, mimicking chimp behaviors—yielded revelations that upended ethology. In 1960, she witnessed "David Greybeard" stripping leaves from twigs to fish for termites, the first documented instance of non-human tool use. This finding, one of the 20th century's landmark scientific achievements, challenged the notion of human uniqueness.

Her research further exposed the darker side of chimp society: territorial wars, infanticide, and cannibalism, as chronicled in the infamous "Gombe Chimpanzee War" from 1974 to 1978. These observations, detailed in her 1986 tome The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, highlighted parallels between primate and human aggression, influencing fields from psychology to conflict resolution.

Without a bachelor's degree, Goodall earned one from Cambridge's Newnham College in 1964 and a PhD in ethology from Darwin College in 1966, basing her dissertation on Gombe behaviors.

By the 1970s, Goodall shifted from pure research to activism amid threats to chimpanzee habitats from logging and poaching. In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute to fund Gombe work and broader conservation. The organization now supports over 300 projects in 30 countries, rehabilitating chimps and empowering communities.

In 1991, she launched Roots & Shoots, a youth-led environmental program active in 160 countries, emphasizing "every individual matters, every individual makes a difference." Projects like the 1994 TACARE initiative in Tanzania integrated reforestation with women's microfinance, protecting chimp habitats while boosting local economies. She also founded the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre in the Republic of Congo in 1992.

A prolific author, Goodall penned over 30 books, from In the Shadow of Man (1971), her seminal memoir, to The Book of Hope (2021), co-written with Douglas Abrams and Gail Hudson, which blended optimism with urgent pleas for planetary stewardship. Her children's titles, like My Life with the Chimpanzees (1988), introduced young readers to conservation.

Goodall's influence extended to diplomacy: Appointed a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002, she addressed world leaders on climate and biodiversity. Honors poured in, including the French Legion of Honour, Kyoto Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Joe Biden in January 2025—just months before her death.

Even in her 90s, Goodall traveled relentlessly, logging nearly 300 days a year on advocacy until health curtailed her in 2024. Her final public appearance was a UNESCO speech in October 2024, "A Speech for History," urging collective action against extinction.

Goodall is survived by her son, Hugo van Lawick, from her first marriage to photographer Hugo van Lawick; and her sister, Judy. Her second husband, Derek Bryceson, a Tanzanian politician, died in 1980.

Tributes flooded in from around the world. "Jane Goodall showed us that hope is not passive—it's a verb," tweeted Greta Thunberg. The Jane Goodall Institute announced a global "Roots & Shoots Day" on April 3, 2026—her would-be 92nd birthday—to plant trees in her honor.

In an era of ecological despair, Goodall's message endures: "Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall we be saved." Her life, a bridge between species, reminds us that curiosity and compassion can change the world.